The New South Wales Branch of the BAA & the Sydney University Observatory.

The first university observatory in Australia was opened at the University of Sydney in 1909, with help from members of the New South Wales Branch of the BAA. Set up in the University's Quadrangle, its main telescope was a 5-inch (12.5cm) Grubb instrument, which had been a gift to Irish-born engineer Cecil West Darley on his leaving the position of chief engineer for harbours and rivers in NSWin 1895. Five years later before departing Australia for London, Darley, who had joined the Branch after receiving the telescope, donated it to the University's Engineering Department. After careful restoration, it is now on display in the foyer of the University's School of Physics, though its objective lens is missing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]